Magnetic gasket for domestic appliance



y 12, 1964 A. J. SWANECK, J 3,132,386

MAGNETIC GASKET FOR DOMESTIC APPLIANCE Filed Feb. 12, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig.5.

INVENTOR Anthony J. Swuneck, Jr.

' BY WIT -Y -0v- ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,132,386 MAGNETIC GASKET FOR DONESTIC APPLIANCE Anthony J. Swaneck, .lr., Columbus, Ohio, assignor to Westinghouse Eiectric Corporation, East Pittsburgh,

Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Feb. 12, 1962, Ser. No. 172,531 8 Claims. (Qt. 26-439) This invention relates to magnetic gaskets, and relates more particularly to magnetic gaskets for use between the doors and casings of the cabinets of domestic refrigerators.

Magnetic gaskets are used between the doors and casings of the cabinets of domestic refrigerators for the two purposes of exerting door closing forces, and of maintaining seals between the doors and casings when the doors are closed. Prior construction have used magnets in the top, bottom and strike portions or" the gaskets, but have not used magnets in the door hinge portions of the gaskets. The reason that magnets have not been used in the hinge portions of the gaskets is that as a door starts to close, a magnet in a hinge portion of a gasket would move outwardly through being attracted to the adjacent casing surface, and would move the portion of the gasket between the magnet and the casing against the latter before the door was closed. Then, further closing of the door would result in the hinge portion of the gasket being deflected laterally in a wiping action, resulting in undesired gasket distortion, and a poor seal. Accordingly, it has been the practice in the past to use two types of gaskets, having two different gasket sections, with each door, one type being a magnetic gasket having top, bottom and strike portions, and the other type being a nonmagnetic, compression type at the hinge side edge of the door.

This invention enables a magnetic gasket to be used at the hinge side edge of a door, and to be the same in section as the magnetic gasket used at the top, bottom and strike edges of the door. This is not only reduces the manufacturing costs of the gaskets since but one section is required, but provides a magnetic seal along all four side edges of a door.

In one embodiment of this invention, a permanent magnet is placed within the hinge edge portion of a gasket, the magnet being so designed that it has a main field between poles along opposite longitudinal edges of its side which faces the casing of the associated cabinet when its door is closed, and which has a weaker, secondary magnetic field between poles along opposite edges of its oppositeside. A retainer of magnetic material is placed within the gasket adjacent to and spaced from the said opposite side of the magnet. When the door is open, the magnet is attracted to and moves inwardly towards the retainer, and reduces the free height of the gasket by moving it inwardly. The attraction force between the magnet and the retainer not only reduces the free height of the gasket, but prevents the magnet from moving outwardly towards the casing and moving the gasket against the casing when the'door approaches its closed position. Thus, the outer portion of the gasket is prevented from rubbing against the casing and being deflected laterally in a wiping action. When the door is almost closed, the attraction force between the casing and the magnet overcomes that between the magnet and the retainer so that the magnet moves outwardly to force the gaskets outer portion against the casing. When the door is opened, there is no roll-back of the gasket as there would be if it had been deflected laterally during the closing of the door.

An object of this invention is to seal the hinge side edge of a door of a refrigerator cabinet with a magnetic gasket.

Another object of this invention is to seal all four side edges of a door of a refrigerator cabinet with magnetic gaskets.

Another object of this invention is to reduce the manufacturing cost of a gasket including magnets, for the door of a refrigerator cabinet.

This invention will now be described with reference to the annexed drawings, of which:

FIG. 1 is a front view of a refrigerator cabinet embodying this invention, with its door open;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged, fragmentary view of the door of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a section along the lines III-III of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a section along the lines IV-IV of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary view, in section, of a refrigerator door embodying this invention, and the adjacent portion of the casing of its cabinet, with the door in closed position;

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. partially open;

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary view in perspective of the retainer used within the gasket shown by FIGS. 4, 5 and 6;

FIG- 8 is a fragmentary view in perspective, of the magnet used within the gasket shown by FIGS. 4, 5 aud6, and

FIG. 9 is an end view of the magnet shown by'FIG. 8.

Referring now to the drawings, a domestic refrigerator fit has a casing 12 with a door 13 at its front, shown in full open position by FIG. 1. The door 13, when closed, covers a rectangular access opening 15 to a storage space 5 but with the door 1?. The door is supported from the casing 12 by hinges 18 for pivotal movement about a vertical axis A-A.

Attached to the inner face of the door 13 adjacent 39 at the strike side edge of the door, and has a vertically,

extending portion 31 at the hinge side edge of the door. The gasket portions 26, 28, 30 and 31 are of vinyl plastic, are arranged as sides of a rectangle extending around the access opening 15, and are mitered, butted and joined at the corners of the rectangle.

The gasket 29 has a longitudinally extending base 32 which is generally C-shaped in section, for receiving an edge of an inner door panel 33, has a horizontally extending head 34 of tubular construction, rectangular in outline, and has a hollow Web 35 connecting the base 32 and the bead 34. The web has aligned ribs 39 extending inwardly from its inner sides which we spaced from the base 32. The beads "34 of the four gasket portions are filled with permanent magnets 33, each of which has, as shown by FIGS. 8 and 9, two opposite magnetic poles N and S along the longitudinal side edges of their inner and outer sides which are pole surfaces. The inner pole surface faces in the same direction as the striking surface of the head 34, and has a main magnetic field between its poles. The opposite, outer pole surface has a weaker secondary field between its poles.

The magnets 38 are formed from magnetic material such as barium ferrite, originally in powdered or granulated form, and, together with a rubber or rubber-like bonding substance, is molded to shape, and then magnetized. Such bonding gives the magnets flexibility which not only minimizes the changes of breakage in service, but renders the gasket portions in which the magnets are enclosed, conformable to irregular shaped contact surfaces of the seat 22.

The gasket portion 3* at the hinge side edge of the door, has extending its length within its hollow web 35,

Patented May 12, 1964' J a generally U-shaped, magnetic retainer 4%) of magnetically permeable material, which has a flat inner portion 41 in contact with the outer wall of the head 34, and which has portions 42 extending outwardly from the ends of its legs into the spaces between the ribs 39 of the web 35 and the base 32.

When the door is open, as shown by FIGS. 4 and 6, the magnet 38 in the gasket portion 31 is caused by the magnetic field between its outer pole surface and the retainer 40, to be attracted to and to move towards the retainer, compressing the web 35 and reducing the free height of the gasket portion 31 from that shown by the line B to that shown by the line C on FIG. 4. The free height of the gasket portion 31 is so reduced that, as shown by FIG. 6, when the door approaches closed position, the bead 34 of the gasket portion 31 clears the adjacent surface of the casing so that it is not defiected laterally in a wiping motion as it would be if its free height was not so reduced.

When the door is almost completely closed, the attraction force between the magnet 38 in the gasket portion 31, caused by its main magnetic field at its inner pole surface, overcomes the weaker attraction force between the magnet and the retainer 48, so that when the door is fully closed, as shown by FIG. 5, the magnet 38 has moved outwardly to force the bead 34 against the seat 22, thereby forming a seal at the hinge side edge of the door.

With a gasket construction of the type herein disclosed, snapping of the head 34 upon opening of the door is eliminated or materially reduced. The magnet 38 holds the bead 34 in contact with the casing seating surface 22 until after opening of the door begins. If the retainer 40 was not present, the gasket would tend to remain in sealing position, resulting in bending of the gasket base 32 until sufiicient spring force is developed therein to overcome the holding force of the magnet. This condition would cause snapping of the gasket each time the door was opened. By using the retainer 40 in the gasket, the bending modulus is increased, with the result that the magnetic holding force is overcome at a smaller door opening with elimination or material reduction of gasket snapping.

The other gasket portions 26, 28 and 30 do not contain magnetic retainers 40 which are not required in these gasket portions since their free heights are not required to be reduced when the door approaches closed position. They are, however, otherwise exactly like the gasket portion 31, and have the same section, so that all four gasket portions can be manufactured in a single gasket length, thereby reducing the manufacturing cost over that which would be involved if the section of the gasket portion 31 was different from that of the other gasket portions and had to be manufactured differently.

While the invention has been shown in but one form, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that it is not so liruited but is susceptible of various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit thereof.

What is claimed is:

l. The combination with a cabinet member having an access opening in an upright plane,

having a door member for closing said opening mounted on hinges to said cabinet member for swinging about an upright axis, and having a gasket secured to one of said members about a line extending around said opening, said gasket having top, bottom, strike side edges, and binge side edge portions with striking beads facing said other member, of

a longitudinally extending permanent magnet within the head of said hinge side edge portion, said magnet having a flat side facing said other member, and

a longitudinally extending magnetic retainer within said hinge side edge portion between said magnet and said one member, and separated from said magnet by a portion of said gasket. 2. The combination with a cabinet member having an access opening in an upright plane,

having a door member for closing said opening mounted on hinges to said cabinet member for swinging about an upright axis, and having a gasket secured to one of said members about a line extending around said opening, said gasket having top, bottom, strike side edge, and hinge side edge portions with striking beads facing said other member, of a longitudinally extending permanent magnet within the head of said hinge side edge portion, said magnet having a flat side facing said other member with spaced-apart, opposite magnetic poles extending along the longitudinal edges of said side of said magnet, and having spaced-apart, opposite magnetic poles extending along the longitudinal edges of its opposite side, and a longitudinally extending magnetic retainer within said hinge side edge portion between said opposite side and said one member. 3. In combination with a cabinet member having an access opening in an upright plane, having a door member for closing said opening mounted on hinges to said cabinet member for swinging about an upright axis, and having a gasket secured to one of said members about a line extending around said opening, said gasket having top, bottom, strike side edge, and hinge side edge portions with striking beads facing said other member, of a longitudinally extending permanent magnet within the bead of said hinge side edge portion, said magnet having a flat side facing said other member with spaced-apart, opposite magnetic poles extending along the longitudinal edges of said side of said magnet with a main magnetic field between said poles, and having spaced-apart, opposite magnetic poles extending along the longitudinal edges of its opposite sides with a secondary magnetic field, weaker than said main field between said last mentioned poles, and a longitudinally extending magnetic retainer between said opposite side and said one member. 4. The combination with a cabinet member having an access opening in an upright plane, and having a door member for closing said opening mounted on hinges to said cabinet member for swinging about an upright axis, of a gasket having a base secured to one of said members along a line extending around said opening, having a striking bead facing said other member, and having a hollow web connecting said base and head, said gasket having top, bottom, strike side edge, and hinge side edge portions with permanent magnets within the beads of said portions,

said magnets having flat sides facing said other member, and a magnetic retainer within said hollow web of said hinge side edge portion, said retainer being separated from said magnets by a portion of said gasket. 5. The combination with a cabinet member having an access opening in an upright plane, and having a door member for closing said opening mounted on hinges to said cabinet member for swinging about an upright axis, of a gasket having a base secured to one of said members about a line extending around said opening, having a striking bead facing said other member, and having a hollow web connecting said base and bead, said gasket having top, bottom, strike side edge, and hinge side edge portions with permanent magnets within the beads of said portions,

said magnets having fiat sides facing said other member, said permanent magnet within said bead of said hinge side edge portion having spaced-apart, opposite poles extending along the longitudinal edges of said fiat side of said last mentioned magnet, and having spaced-apart, opposite poles extending along the longitudinal edges of the side of said last mentioned magnet opposite to said flat side thereof, and

a magnetic retainer within said hollow web of said hinge side edge portion.

6. The combination with a cabinet member having a rectangular access opening in an upright plane, and having a door member for closing said opening mounted on hinges to said cabinet member for swinging about an upright axis, of

a gasket rectangular in outline having a base secured to one of said members about a line extending around said opening, having a striking bead facing said other member, and having a hollow web connectiong said bead and base, said gasket having top, bottom, strike side edge, and binge side edge portions with permanent magnets within the beads of said portions, said magnet within said bead of said hinge side edge portion having a flat side facing said other member with spaced-apart, opposite magnetic poles extending along the longitudinal edges of said flat side with a main magnetic field between said poles, the side of said last mentioned magnet opposite said flat side having spaced-apart, opposite magnetic poles extending along its longitudinal edges with a secondary magnetic field, weaker than said main field between said last mentioned poles, and

a magentic retainer within said hollow web of said hinge side edge portion.

7. The combination With a cabinet member having a rectangular access opening in an upright plane, and having a door member for closing said opening mounted on hinges to said cabinet member for swinging about an upright axis, of

a gasket rectangular in outline having a base secured to one of said members about a line extending around said opening, having a striking bead facing said other member, and having a hollow web connecting said bead and base, said web having ribs extending inwardly from its sides and spaced from said base, said gasket having 5 top, bottom, strike side edge, and hinge side edge portions with permanent magnets within the beads of said portions, said magnet within the head of said hinge side edge portion having a fiat side facing said other member with spaced-apart, opposite magnetic poles extending along the longitudinal edges of said flat side, the side of said last mentioned magnet opposite said flat side having spaced-apart, opposite magnetic poles extending along its longitudinal edges, and

a magnetic retainer generally U-shaped in cross-section within said hollow web of said hinge side edge portion with portions extending outwardly from its legs into the spaces between said ribs and said base.

8. The combination with a cabinet member having a rectangular access opening in an upright plane, and

having a door member for closing said opening mounted on hinges to said cabinet member for swinging about an upright axis, of

a gasket rectangular in outline having a base secured to one of said members about a line extending around said opening, having a striking bead facing said other member, and having a hollow web connecting said bead and base, said web having ribs extending inwardly from its sides and spaced from said base, said gasket having top, bottom, strike side edge, and hinge side edge portions with permanent magnets within the beads of said portions, said magnet within said bead of said hinge side edge portion having a flat side facing said other member with spaced-apart, opposite magnetic poles extending along the longitudinal edges of said flat side with a main magnetic field between said poles, the side of said last mentioned magnet opposite said flat side having spaced-apart, opposite magnetic its longitudinal edges with a secondary magnetic field, weaker than said main field, between said last mentioned poles, and

a magnetic retainer generally U-shaped in cross-section within said hollow web of said hinge side edge portion with portions extending outwardly from its legs into the spaces between said ribs and said base.

poles extending along References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,048,902 Hastings et al Aug. 14, 1962 FOREIGN PATENTS 835,492 Great Britain May 18, 1960 

4. THE COMBINATION WITH A CABINET MEMBER HAVING AN ACCESS OPENING IN AN UPRIGHT PLANE, AND HAVING A DOOR MEMBER FOR CLOSING SAID OPENING MOUNTED ON HINGES TO SAID CABINET MEMBER FOR SWINGING ABOUT AN UPRIGHT AXIS, OF A GASKET HAVING A BASE SECURED TO ONE OF SAID MEMBERS ALONG A LINE EXTENDING AROUND SAID OPENING, HAVING A STRIKING BEAD FACING SAID OTHER MEMBER, AND HAVING A HOLLOW WEB CONNECTING SAID BASE AND BEAD, SAID GASKET HAVING TOP, BOTTOM, STRIKE SIDE EDGE, AND HINGE SIDE EDGE PORTIONS WITH PERMANENT MAGNETS WITHIN THE BEADS OF SAID PORTIONS, SAID MAGNETS HAVING FLAT SIDES FACING SAID OTHER MEMBER, AND A MAGNETIC RETAINER WITHIN SAID HOLLOW WEB OF SAID HINGE SIDE EDGE PORTION, SAID RETAINER BEING SEPARATED FROM SAID MAGNETS BY A PORTION OF SAID GASKET. 